Paying Respects
by SerpentineShadows
Summary: A stop on the way to Raftel. (Set at random point in the future before a confrontation with Blackbeard.)
1. Prologue

**A/N:** I was just gonna write Luffy visiting Ace's grave, but somehow this happened. Some Zoro POV since he's been missing for a while from the anime and some Brook POV for the awesomeness he showed in the latest episode.

* * *

Zoro pauses in his cleaning of Wado Ichimonji, eyeing Luffy's precarious position on the Sunny's figurehead. He's unnaturally still, eyes focused on the horizon. Ever since the crew finished eating lunch, Luffy's been watching, waiting for the next island to appear.

Everyone else is busy with their own tasks: reading, drawing maps, tinkering, cooking...except they're not really busy. They're trying to be respectful and give Luffy space, but honestly, Zoro thinks this "giving space" business hasn't really been working out.

It's been years since the disaster at Marineford, and yet the scar left by Ace's death still hasn't healed. It will never truly heal, Zoro muses as he stares down at Wado Ichimonji's white scabbard, but it shouldn't leave Luffy looking so vulnerable, so childlike and lost, at the thought of visiting Ace's grave.

Zoro sheathes his sword with a clink, and Luffy's head turns slightly. Zoro catches Luffy's eye and notices the sea of anger, uncertainty, and sadness lurking behind a frail mask of impassiveness. He can't quite help the feeling of wrongness echoing in his heart as Luffy turns back to looking at the horizon.

Zoro leans back against the railing and closes his eye. Hopefully, visiting Ace's grave will bring catharsis to Luffy, to give him the strength to face Blackbeard and succeed where Ace failed.

* * *

Luffy seems to spot the island before even Usopp, who's up in the crow's nest, does. Some type of animal instinct perhaps, Brook decides, that connects Luffy to Ace even now (the same type that calls his heart — except he doesn't have a heart, skull joke! — to Reverse Mountain).

Brook's fingers itch with the desire to pull out his violin or guitar, to play a melody that will soothe the ache in his captain's heart. And so he does, moving his bow across the violin's strings gracefully, carefully, edging the line between calming and haunting. Shifting his head, Brook follows the line of his violin to his captain, still seated on the figurehead.

It might just be wishful thinking, but Brook feels like Luffy is less nervous now. It's in the gentle curve of his back as he leans forward, the way his knuckles are no longer ghostly white.

When Brook's song comes to an end, Luffy turns to him, a smile plastered on his face.

"I liked that," he says simply, a shadow of his usual cheeriness. "Can you play more?"

Looking at the childish innocence in Luffy's face, the hints of a sorrow too deep to ever be completely healed, Brook truly feels his age in a way he usually doesn't when he's with the other Strawhats. To someone who came before Roger, Luffy is but a child, having barely stepped foot into the cruel world of adults. To one of Luffy's crew though, he is a man — brave, firm in his convictions, and scarred by what life has given him. He is the man who will become Pirate King, the man with an infectious cheer and a smile brighter than the sun itself.

If Luffy wants Brook to play, he will continue to play, hoping for the return of a smile that captivated him the first time he saw it.


	2. The Actual Paying Respects Part

**A/N:** How does one properly write Luffy? I have no idea if I've succeeded. Also, for this fic (unlike my other one), I decided to add Jinbe as a member of the Strawhats since that seems to be where _One Piece_ is going.

* * *

They circle the island once, searching for a place to dock, but before they can actually do so, Luffy grabs at a small tree and launches himself toward the island. Miraculously, the branch Luffy's holding onto doesn't snap, and he lands safely on the shore.

Jinbe maneuvers the Sunny so they slide up onto the sandy shore, a lecture for Luffy sitting on the tip of his tongue. The words disappear when he sees the way Luffy hurries up the small beach in a few strides, eager to reach Ace's grave as soon as possible.

Already, Luffy is bounding through the grass, heading up and over the small hill that obscures their view of the graves. Jinbe looks at the other Strawhats, seeing his internal conflict displayed on their faces. Should they follow Luffy or leave him be?

* * *

The first thing Luffy sees when he climbs on top of the hill is two graves side by side. There's a tightness in his throat and mistiness blurring his vision. Luffy blinks and rubs at his stinging eyes, but he can't see the graves anymore. There's a thick fog suddenly surrounding him on all sides, blocking out the bright blue sky, the sun, the grassy hill just behind him.

And then suddenly, his chest hurts. Luffy doubles over, his vision turning red until it clears into an image of Ace standing before him, Ace protecting him from...from Admiral Akainu. Ace with a hole burned into his chest, right through his Whitebeard tattoo. Luffy lunges forward, hands desperately reaching in front of him to touch this weird dream-Ace. His arms fall to the ground, weighed down, and his chest continues to hurt, as if someone's burned his heart.

* * *

"Luffy's taking a while," Zoro grumbles.

"Let him take his time, moss-head," Sanji immediately snaps back. He reaches up to light his cigarette then starts swearing as he almost burns his hand.

Before the two can devolve into a fight, Robin says, "Zoro is quite right. Luffy does tend to attract trouble wherever he goes, even on a small island such as this one. He might even be engaging in a fight as we speak."

"Oh no, do you think he might be in danger?" Chopper asks, fiddling with his hat.

"It's Luffy, he'll be fine," Nami says, patting Chopper on the head. Even as she says that, she looks at the bright blue sky, the perfectly-cut grass — no sign of a storm coming, no sign of danger — and feels uneasy. "He does get into a lot of trouble though."

"Perhaps some of us should go check up on him?" Brook suggests.

* * *

Ace disappears from in front of Luffy, leaving nothing but the thick, white fog, and he actually cries out — a heart-wrenching sound, dragged from his throat — when he crawls and trips over a body, _Ace's_ body. Lifeless, limp, staining his hands with blood. It's his worst nightmare, being relived with extra gory details.

* * *

Everyone wants to be a part of the group that goes after Luffy. They're all concerned and staying on the ship, not knowing how Luffy is doing, makes them anxious. The problem? At least one person needs to stay and watch over the ship.

Unfortunately for the rest of the Strawhats, neither Zoro — who's usually fine with getting stuck on guard duty — nor Usopp — who used to avoid terrifying islands like the plague — nor Franky — who takes protecting the Sunny very seriously — volunteer to stay behind.

"How about drawing lots?" Nami suggests, but no one trusts her the scheming look on her face that she's struggling to hide.

All other suggestions are shot down for similar reasons until Jinbe states his.

* * *

Luffy sobs into Ace's body ( _cold_ ), crying "ACE!" and feeling like he's 17 all over again. _Think about what you still have and not what you've lost,_ a voice that sounds like Jinbe says in the back of his mind as the tears run down his face, the blood down his hands, onto the grass beneath him.

And so Luffy takes deep, rasping breaths, rubbing at his eyes. He looks around and realizes he can actually see more than just a murky whiteness. He sees two graves again: Ace's orange hat and his necklace of red beads, their colors faded with time, along with a rusty knife rests on top of one tombstone. Whitebeard's white coat, tattered and dirtied yet regal, is perched atop his bisento on top of the other tombstone.

Luffy rushes over to Ace's tombstone and plops down in front of it. There are random swords sticking out of the ground all around the two tombstones, but they hardly retain Luffy's attention. His eyes linger on Ace's name, engraved into the stone.

Luffy starts with a small laugh — small because he can't manage anything else without it being forced. He starts talking, ("Oops, I forgot to bring you something, Ace. Maybe I'll get Sanji to make a Pirate Lunch for you later!") rambling about the adventures he's had since Ace's death, the additions to his crew that Ace never got to meet.

As Luffy speaks, it's like a weight is being lifted from his shoulders that he never realized was there. His grin widens, his gestures growing more animated, until he's practically bouncing in place. Eventually, Luffy drifts to the center of the two graves, and he addresses Whitebeard briefly ("Hey, old man, thanks for everything you did for Ace!") before switching back to Ace.

Once he's finally run out of things to say, Luffy wraps his arms around Ace's tombstone and declares, "I'm going to be the Pirate King! Just watch me."

Over the years, when Luffy said these words to Ace, he was faced with mocking laughter, fond smiles, equally-provocative proclamations, and finally silence. Words he whispered at night to Ace were lost at sea, lost in the sleeping rocking of the waves, lost in the steady creaking of the ship. But now, it felt like his words were acknowledged, as if Ace was standing right in front of him, ruffling his hair.

Satisfied, Luffy says his goodbyes, thanks Whitebeard one more time, and turns to head back to the ship. Once again, there's a thick fog blocking his view, but this time, it's not surrounding him. As he walks into the fog, it parts around him, so he walks aimlessly through the fog just to see it continue to part around him.

Eventually, he walks straight into someone, and when he looks closer, it's Zoro.

"Zoro, did you get lost again?" he asks, laughing, but there's no response. Zoro is kneeling on the grass, holding Wado Ichimonji in his hands and staring at it. When Luffy leans closer, he can hear Zoro whispering variations of "Kuina" and "I'm sorry" over and over again. The guilt and horror in his expression makes Luffy's blood boil, and he readies his fists to beat up whoever did this to Zoro.

No one comes out of the fog to declare their nefarious plans, how they managed to defeat Pirate Hunter Zoro, though, so Luffy picks Zoro up and heads back to the ship. Luffy sees everyone else standing on the shore, waiting for him, so he waves, lifting up Zoro so they can see him just in case they were wondering where he went.

But as Luffy squints and takes a closer look, some of his crew is in the ocean, struggling to swim. It's odd, though, because some of them aren't even Devil Fruit users. Deciding to not think too hard about it, Luffy stretches one arm out to grab onto the Sunny's mast and launches himself and Zoro into the ship. Setting Zoro (gently) onto the deck, Luffy peers over the railing. All of his crew except for Zoro is in the water, so he anchors himself onto the railing and stretches his hands into the water.

Luffy feels lethargic, his strength seeping out of him, and he sags against the railing. Still, he perseveres — it's his _crew_ drowning — and manages to pick up Chopper: the smallest and the easiest to lift out of the water. He lays Chopper onto the deck, pushing on his chest a little so that water spews out of Chopper's mouth. Luffy doesn't know what else to do, so he turns back to the rest of his crew, aiming to pick up Brook next.

He's lightheaded, the idea of reaching back into the water already making his bones feel like jelly, but he has to continue. He has to —

There's footsteps from behind him and a splash as Zoro leaps into the water. He carries up the lightest crew members first, all in one go. For the others, namely Franky and Jinbe, Zoro hands them up to Luffy one at a time.

Everyone is coughing up water, drenched from head to toe. Jinbe is one of the first ones to recover, and he tells Luffy, "I apologize. It appears that the island is somewhat sentient and able to protect against intruders. I should've known that they would've set up some defense mechanism."

"Defense mechanism?" Luffy asks.

"It appears that the island has a way of trapping people in their worst memories and leading them to their deaths," Robin explains, still experiencing the taste of ashes in her mouth (as everything she held dear went up in flames).

At Robin's words, Luffy thinks of the image of Ace in his arms, and he curls his hands into fists; Zoro reaches for Wado Ichimonji; Nami turns to look at her mikan trees, hears the echoes of a gunshot; Usopp remembers standing by his mother's bedside, waiting for someone who would never come; Sanji tries to recall the taste of his mother's cooking, suffering through abuse and starvation; Chopper hears scathing words, sees the horror of a skull and crossbones; Franky sees Tom fall before him, ruined because of his creations; Brook feels the loneliness all around him, stretching for years and decades; Jinbe thinks of the horrors Fishmen and merfolk experience at the hands of humans.

"It's quite fascinating," Robin continues to say. "I've read about it before, but I didn't think we would stumble upon it."

"Oh, so it's not a Mystery Fog but a Mystery Island," Luffy says. "I'm glad Ace gets to stay on a Mystery Island!"

It's then that his crew notices: Luffy's smile, his usually-unflappable cheeriness back in full force.

Luffy bounds over to the stern, facing the sea, his back straight, his head held high, one hand on his hat. He points to the horizon and yells, "Let's go beat up Blackbeard!"

* * *

 **A/N:** Hopefully, I didn't butcher anyone too badly. I was thinking that 1) Ace's and Whitebeard's graves would totally be robbed if just anyone stumbled upon the island (so I made it a Mystery Island) and 2) Jinbe, being busy with Big Mom, hadn't visited yet but he knew of the location (not the danger). Thanks for reading, and thanks to anyone who favorited/reviewed this story or _Homecoming_! Hope everyone enjoys the holidays, and if anyone's curious, here's an unfinished alternate version of the sentient island:

When they dock, Luffy's the only one that comes ashore.

He faces his crew and waves, loudly thanking Sanji when a Pirate Lunch is tossed at him. Even though they're trying to hide it, he notices their pained expressions.

"None of you wanna come?" Luffy asks one last time. "It's an island!"

"Luffy..." Nami starts with a tired sigh, and Luffy takes that as his cue to run.

The paved road curves like a white river through the bright green grass. Luffy decides it's much easier to just run across the grass, and that's when the grassy area next to his feet transforms into a large, fanged mouth. When Luffy pokes one of its green teeth, the grass shoots up so that the mouth descends on him and swallows him whole.

It's dark for a moment, but then Luffy sees the bright blue sky and the surprised faces of his crew.

"What the hell, Luffy? A grass mouth just appeared and spit you out! What did you do?"

Luffy laughs and tells them, "I don't know."

Ace's grave is located on an island with a Mystery Grass Monster, and that alleviates a little of the tightness in Luffy's chest. Ace's grave is safe from people that would want to harm him, _and_ Ace has an adventure waiting to be had right beside him!

"What do you mean, you don't know, Luffy?" Nami asks. "You must have done something."


End file.
